Snapchat’s redesign aims to separate “social” and “media”

A new Snapchat is here. The redesigned app was promised after Snap reported an awful Q3 2017 financially, and now the company is ready to tell the world what it’s all about. Snap doesn’t want photos and videos from friends mixed with content from publishers and creators. With the new Snapchat, you’re going to notice a separation of “social” and “media.”

Here’s CEO Evan Spiegel explaining the redesigned app:

Although Snap is making a big deal out of the redesigned app, it’s pretty easy to understand. The camera will still launch the moment you open Snapchat. But there’s been some movement for content from friends and publishers. To left is where you’ll find Chats and Stories from friends, and to the right you’ll find Stories from the rest of the community.

The app also has something called the “dynamic Friends page.” It’ll apparently list your friends “based on the way you communicate with them.” The new algorithm tries to position everyone in the order you might want to talk to them.

From illustrations shown it appears they can be depicted by previews of their Stories or simply headshots of their Bitmoji.

Over on the Discover page, Snap hasn’t changed all that much. Publishers, creators, and the community have their content highlighted in a single location. Subscription remain at the top, and then the app features recommended items. As you continue watching Stories, Snapchat will provide better recommendations.

Only a limited number of users will get the redesigned app early on. Snap says it’ll make the new Snapchat available to everything in the coming weeks. Updates for the iOS and Android apps have been pushed out already, but it appears Snap has to flip a switch for users on the back-end in order for the changes to take effect.